Notice Board

primordial goo: abject poetics on the brink of the abyss
November 27 | noon | University Recital Hall
Free admission, everyone welcome

In this artist talk, Brack will discuss their oeuvre in relation to their current project primordial goo, which reflects on bitumen mastic as a material in its art historical context as a binder for objects in arts, crafts, and architecture, it’s current connotations with atrophy, decay, and environmental destruction, while silmultaneously leaning into the cross-cultural mythologies of clay as a material associated with the origin of life.

The presentation explores how enacting poetics and beauty within the abject can be an act of dissent, and how contemplations on decay can reveal the fragility, and savage grace in continuity and survival.

Emma Brack is a multidisciplinary artist currently residing in occupied territory in Canada and Norway. They received a Master of Fine Arts from the National Academy of Arts, Oslo, Norway, and studied philosophy and fine arts at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. They have exhibited internationally including the Marrakech Biennale, Morocco, Norwegian Sculpture Biennale, UKS, Kunstnerforbundet Museum, Munch Museum in Norway, as well as exhibitions in Denmark, Scotland, England, Portugal, Spain and Canada. Their work is in various public and private collections. They are the recipient of numerous awards, grants and scholarships.

Their work investigates extinction and modes of survival, with an emphasis on parallel narratives historically ignored, silenced or under-represented, centering on perspectives of the outsider as a way to challenge normative structures of knowledge and power.

Through an interdisciplinary approach based in sculpture, installation, photography, and writing, their work develops through historical and traditional techniques and materials, and outdated technologies, alongside current modes of production. Their practice is rooted in exploring intersections of beauty, abject, natural, artifice, belonging and displacement. They are interested in interpretations of magic, myth, and animism as transcultural expressions, and transgressions.

Emma Brack is Artist in Residence (AiR) at Casa from November 19 to December 17. Thank you to Casa for their collaboration in making this artist talk possible. 

Image courtesy of the artist.